All posts filed under: Music

One Record Wonder – ‘Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too?’ by The New Radicals – In Retrospect

Published by Luke Halliday

Whether you were aware of it or not, you’ve likely heard a song written by the New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander. While the New Radicals only ever released one record—Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too?, which itself produced arguably the most timeless one hit wonder in music history “You Get What You Give” (this writer’s all time favourite song)—Alexander would go on to enjoy a successful career as a song-writer for artists such as Beyoncé, Ronan Keating, The Kaiser Chiefs, Enrique Iglesias, The Struts, and even Santana—just to name a few. Alexander even received a Grammy Award for writing the song “Game of Love” by Santana and Michelle Branch. Despite the countless hits he had written for other artists, it is still the New Radicals one record wonder Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too? that stands as Alexander’s crowning achievement as a musical artist. While the New Radicals are most best remembered for their proverbial one hit wonder “You Get What You Give”, and for good reason, their one and only record is a musical odyssey the …

RADWIMPS release music video for their song ‘Weekly Shonen Jump’ featuring Jump Heroes

Published by Luke Halliday

Fans of Japanese rock band RADWIMPS would likely be familiar with their ode to Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, aptly titled ‘Weekly Shonen Jump’ which featured on their critically acclaimed 2016 album Human Bloom. The song sees RADWIMPS lead Yojiro Noda opining of his desire to be a man just like a hero out of Shonen Jump, to be there for the girl he has feelings for whenever she is in a bit of a pinch, looking out for his chance to be her hero. It is a beautiful song through and through. A music video has now been released for the song and it happens to feature countless Shonen Jump heroes throughout the video like Izuku Midoriya of My Hero Academia or Yuma from World Trigger to name a few. You can check out the video below to get a nice listen of RADWIMPS latest single paired up with some heroes of Jump. RADWIMPS’ Human Bloom album is currently available in full on their Spotify channel, for those who are inclined to be using Spotify. …

Utada Hikaru’s Fantôme Album Tops 1 Million Sales, New Music Video Released to Celebrate

Published by Luke Halliday

After a 6 year stint on indefinite hiatus, iconic Japanese singer/songwriter, Utada Hikaru returned in September last year with a brand new album titled Fantôme. Since its release the album has gone on to top 1 million units sold making it 4 times platinum in Japan. This is Hikaru’s first album to top 1 million units sold since her breakout smash hit album First Love way back in 1999. Not only was the Fantôme album the top selling album of 2016 in Japan but it also received the Best Album Award at the 58th Japanese Record Awards. To celebrate the album hitting 1 million sales and winning best album, a new music video has been released for the song “Boukyaku (feat. KOHH)” which you can check out below. Most Westerners would remember Utada Hikaru for her theme songs contributed to the Kingdom Hearts video game series such as ‘Simple and Clean’ and ‘Sanctuary’. Rumour has it that she is slated to return for Kingdom Hearts III with another song serving as the theme for the …

Vocaloid DJ Hachioji P To Perform At SMASH!’s 10th Anniversary Event

Published by Frank Inglese

When you get to my age, you stop celebrating certain things. This is why I havn’t been to a proper party in over a decade. Oh, in my hay-day I was quite a sight to behold; I was king of the dance floor! They used to call me “The Charleston Kid“, and I would swing and bop my way through all kinds of musical tracks. T’was quite the time to be alive. Now, just because I’ve retired, and no longer have the strong enough bones to go to shindigs, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t! Listen up, kids, as Grandpa Frank let’s you in on something pretty cool that’s coming up this August. We all know what SMASH! is, right? Surely! SnapThirty has been attending the Japanese Pop Culture event ever since the sight started up, so if you’re a keen follower of us then surely you’d know. Well did you know that this year marks SMASH!’s 10th anniversary? Oh ho ho! Well, to celebrate said anniversary, SMASH! are preparing a few grand guests who will …

BabyMetal’s Metal Revolution

Published by Jahanzeb Khan

Hard rock infused with pop idol music isn’t exactly unheard of, but it’s never been done in the same way BabyMetal has done, as their brand of music has successfully stood out in an industry where nearly every music genre has become saturated with clones. For that reason alone BabyMetal deserves serious props for being a one of a kind Kawaii Metal band. Anyone listening to BabyMetal for the first time will most likely have been introduced to that one song, and I am of course talking about Gimme Chocolate!! There is certainly a shock value about it for sure, it’s a cutesy Pop Idol song with little kids backed by scary near-death metal music blaring in the background. Their synchronised dancing perfectly in synch with the relentless fury of the metal band. This particular song and music video has become the subject of far too many reaction videos on YouTube, with each reaction video being more annoying and unnatural than the last. That being said, Gimme Chocolate!! certainly succeeds at grabbing your attention, but it isn’t …

KARATE by BabyMetal is the Official Theme Song of NXT TakeOver: The End

Published by Jahanzeb Khan

I can’t believe I am typing this. Japanese kawai metal band, BabyMetal, is larger than life as it is, and they have silenced nay sayers and broken barriers in ways no one could have anticipated. I picked up their latest CD from JB Hi-Fi just the other day. There’s more I want to say, and believe or not I have a special article dedicated to BabyMetal in the works, but in the meantime here’s a piece of news that simply needs to be shared: A BabyMetal song is being used as the official theme for an American wrestling event, and it makes perfect sense. NXT TakeOver, which is the PPV series of WWE‘s NXT brand, has quickly become a must see event whenever it is held. So far there has yet to be a bad NXT TakeOver as each event has surpassed the last by leaps and bounds. We’ve written about NXT here at SnapThirty before, because after all, NXT is the only place where you can find three of the hottest Japanese wrestling stars: Hideo …

One More Time: Remembering Interstella 5555

Published by Jahanzeb Khan

I can’t explain exactly why I started doing this out of the blue, but lately I have been listening to a lot of Daft Punk‘s most popular album called Discovery… well not exactly. I’m not really listening to it per se, instead I have been watching its one of a kind visualisation called Interstella 555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. Daft Punk are a rather mysterious electronic pop duo, and while the genre of music isn’t really my cup of tea (I’m more of a hard rock guy) I couldn’t help but be mesmerised by this production. Discovery itself was a concept album and Daft Punk, along with the legendary Toei Animation studio, turned their album into an anime feature that is Interstella 555. Each song was transformed into an episode, sequentially and chronologically linked from first song to the last. Something like this had not been attempted before, and I don’t think it has ever been done again, which is why Interstella 555 is something worth remembering and revisiting. The visual production and story direction comes …

Asian Kung-Fu Generation had a Jam Session with a Robot named Pepper

Published by Luke Halliday

Asian Kung-Fu Generation are known globally for their particular brand of J-Rock, gaining their notoriety with many of their songs serving as themes for anime series such as Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach and Naruto. AKG front man Gotch is never afraid to try something new, be it experimenting with new sounds or setting their music to some of the strangest music videos you will ever see. Now Gotch has decided to perform a jam session with a robot capable of interpreting and feeling human emotion by the name of Pepper. Pepper not only has the ability to comprehend the complexities of human emotion, he can also rock out with his special Pepperhythm music system (a built in music creation tool). Pepper has many applications and with thousands of these Pepper robots out in the general public for home use it is only a matter of time before Pepper learns to emotion of kill and the end of days is near. For now however please enjoy Gotch, Pepper and Roy rocking out like the end is nigh. …

New Single Cover Gives People Just Another Reason To Dislike Chris Brown

Published by Frank Inglese

I personally have never been a fan of Chris Brown’s music. Being Australian, the only Chris Brown I care about is Oz’s very own star veterinarian who unfortunately shares his name with the infamous recording artist. Usually I would ignore news like this because, not only am I not a fan of his work, but SnapThirty is a website that prides itself on being strictly about Japanese pop culture…not the American music scene. This piece of news caught my eye though, because it seems as though the cover of one of Chris Brown’s upcoming single Zero looks remarkably like a particular illustration by Tsukasa Hojo from his old-school Shonen Jump Manga City Hunter. This comparison was first brought to light by Twitter user @Goldengreg who, as you can see in the link to the Tweet, posted both pictures in question, mentioning that it seems as though the artist of the single cover took great inspiration from that particular City Hunter image. A lot of other people who’ve been commenting around the web are saying that it …

ONE OK ROCK’s Latest Single ‘The Way Back’ Rocks Hard, Did You Really Expect Anything Less?

Published by Luke Halliday

When it comes to Japanese Rock, it has hard to dispute that anyone rocks harder than ONE OK ROCK. Not only have they taken their homeland of Japan by storm but that have gained fans across the globe with a series of world tours and of course their now iconic hit ‘The Beginning’ being used as the theme for the live-action Rurouni Kenshin film. ONE OK ROCK are back once more and this time with a song that hits so hard you’ll need a new pair of socks. The single is called ‘The Way Back’ and it may very well be one of the band’s best yet. You be the judge and have a listen for yourself with the music video below. -30-

Listen Up – Loverin Tamburin Announced for SMASH! 2015

Published by Kane Bugeja

In case you didn’t know already, SMASH! 2015 has promised itself to be quite the musical affair. With guests such as GARNiDELiA and yanaginagi already announced, the auditorily inclined might be happy to know that Loverin Tamburin has been added to this list. Consisting of main vocalist/songwriter Aya, pianist/arranger Akihiro and support musicians Fujio Ryo, Fire and Kohta Igarashi, Loverin Tamburin made their debut back in 2006 with “Aishitageru” (which might be known to you as the theme for Disgaea). Known for a mixture of original songs and anime covers, the band is currently in the midst of their second world tour. So enjoy their stop over in Australia, which I assume you will, considering that they are a returning SMASH! guest. That’s usually a good sign in my opinion. In regards to this appearance, SMASH! President Andrew Qiu said: “From EDM style to J-pop music, SMASH! 2015 is definitely the biggest year yet for Japanese music entertainment. With their highly eccentric style, Loverin Tamburin is the perfect addition to this year’s line-up. We look forward to …

Music to Your Ears – Hiroaki Yura to Attend SMASH! 2015

Published by Kane Bugeja

With SMASH! drawing ever closer around the proverbial corner, it might be considered a wise idea to take a little refresher read on some of the guest who will grace the convention this 2015. For those of you who have an ear for the strings, you may be happy to note that Hiroaki Yura is one of the names rounding out the SMASH! attendance roster. Having founded Eminence Symphony Orchestra, the world’s first animation and gaming focused orchestra, back in 2003, Yura has put forth a number of creative musical series. His directing talents also saw his name added to projects such as Diablo III, Soulcaliber IV and V, along with Steins;Gate (a personal favourite of mine). 2010 saw the birth of a new company under Yura’s direction, Creative Intelligence Arts Inc. Now if that name sounds at all familiar, it might be due to the fact that it is the company behind the upcoming Project Phoenix, the first Japan-based videogame to live amongst the ever growing halls of Kickstarter. Their most recently announced project, an animated …

AKB0048: The Complete Series – Review

Published by

Sitting through 26 episodes of a series that’s completely outside one’s comfort zone is a difficult experience, and that’s how I felt when I had to sit through both seasons of the AKB0048 anime in this complete series collection. But when it was all said and done, I couldn’t help but appreciate AKB0048 for what it was and what it intended to do. For all intents and purposes, AKB0048 is a thorough and well put-together viewing experience for its intended audience. While it may share its namesake with a Japanese pop group of the same name, with constant references to its many band members and its catalogue of magical feel-good songs, this anime is no cheap cash grab to leverage off the brand of AKB48, as it uses the music and notion of a pop idol group to create a rather unique and self-contained setting. The futuristic world presented in AKB0048 is fully realized and aware, its characters having identities that are completely unlike the real-world celebrities that make up the group. It may constantly reference …

GACKT Strips Off For A Cuddle

Published by Luke Halliday

Ladies, are you in the mood for a cuddle? GACKT sure is, so much so that he is stripping off for one, or many if you like. Well not exactly, but I’m sure this news will excite more than a few GACKT fans. Coming bundled with his upcoming single is a variety of cuddle pillows and bed sheets, which will help you to simulate actually being GACKT’s girlfriend or boyfriend without actually being that. The single will retail at roughly $133 Australian Dollars. But hey, if that’s price you need to pay for a cuddle with Japanese rock and visual kei legend GACKT then so be it. Source: Natalie -30-